bokvsbosWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“bok” and “bos” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,372
“bok” frequency rank
#41,858
“bos” frequency rank
83230
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bok bos
Definition bode floresta, bosque

Where the eye mixes bok and bos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. bok and bos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
bok
3 ch
bos

Visual trap between bok and bos

A purely visual mix-up. bok (/bɔk/) and bos (/bɔs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - k in “bok” becomes s in “bos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83230, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bok is recorded at frequency rank #41,372, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɔk/. bos is at rank #41,858, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɔs/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 83230, this pair ranks #939 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bok vs bos

Shared letters: bo. Private to "bok": k. Private to "bos": s.

"bok" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "bos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bok" and "bos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/bɔk/ versus /bɔs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bok" or "bos" show up more?
"bok" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,372 in our Portuguese list, against #41,858 for "bos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "bok" and "bos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bok" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #939 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bok" and "bos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bos vs bué". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #939 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list